


Changes

by syncro37



Category: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 11:27:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14851887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syncro37/pseuds/syncro37
Summary: KO and Dandy face the year unlike any year they've experienced before.





	Changes

**Author's Note:**

> Just an fyi the tenses change as a transition point in the story.

Dendy’s boots crunched against the pebbles of asphalt as she walked towards the Bodega, surveying the ground for shattered glass. Peering through the windows, she could see KO mopping the floor along with a tense Rad, who watched KO with apprehension.

 

KO's head shot up at the sound of the ringing bell. "Dendy!"

 

She waved her hand. "Hello KO."

 

KO abandoned his mop and jogged over. Rad also gave a casual "Hey Dendy" and Enid coincidentally strode out the back room with a magazine to her face.

 

"I've come to-"

 

"Actually-I need help!" Rad and Enid traded nervous looks "With...the toilets! Yeah, they're in real bad shape and we just can't stop the water from leaking everywhere and we really need someone super duper smart to fix it." With that, Dendy felt a brisk tug down the end of aisle 3. It's after KO opened the chipped door that a wave of water washed against their heels.

 

Dendy adjusted her glasses. "Wow you weren't kidding."

 

"Oh, phooey, these really are bad!"

 

She whipped her head around to KO. "Weren't you the one just telling me that?"

 

"Yeah but...it's not about that." KO leaned in with a hand on her shoulder. "Rad and Enid have been acting _really_ weird."

 

"Indeed. It appears that your co-workers have adapted poorly to your recent developments"

 

"Gosh I-I don't feel any different." He looked down at his hands. "Dendy? Am I acting different!?"

 

"I believe so. For one thing, your tolerance for -'noogies' has dwindled significantly, along with the time it takes for you to throw a tantrum."

 

"Oh."

 

"Well you can't expect everything to revert back to normal like an 11-minute program.

 

" _I know_! But I can't fix this." His eyes grew big and shiney and he took a series of quick breaths before continuing. "When you guys hugged me, I made a deal TKO that he could come out of the cage as long as he gave me his powers."

 

"I see." She squinted and considered patting his shoulder. Instead she offers a calm smile, which was a touch harder to pull off than her excited one. "Rest assured, while your actions may have set back some of our progress, we can still work with these changes with continued testing - as long as you’re OK with it KO."

 

KO huffed. Purple sparks flickered in the air. "I don't want to work with these changes, I want them _gone!_ "

 

"Well now you're just behaving irrationally. You just said you made a deal with TKO which entails-"

 

"Arrrrrgh!"

 

He howled, and ran, and did not return to work until the next day.

 

                    --------------------------

"KO you are loved and appreciated."

 

"I-I know."

 

"Do you?"

 

"I do, but h-how can anyone keep loving me when I'm hurting them all the time?"

 

“I...don’t know. But we do, we still love and appreciate you. Can you remember that?

 

                    ---------------------------

   

Enid and Rad spend the summer with their families while Mr. Gar had gone off to who knows where (something about the glorbs?) On top of a mountain of instructions KO's sure he already forgotten half of, the last minutes with Mr.Gar are spent hearing, "I trust you," and a head pat.

 

Dendy visits KO more often now that she's free from "relearning and regurgitating useless facts 7-hours a day." When he explains his new role as temporary manager Dendy shakes her head and goes on a winded tangent about how it's physically impossible for KO fulfill the tasks of Enid, himself, and Rad due to the average rate of customers coming in each day along with the surface area of the shop, and the concentration of fecal matter per square inch on the toilet rims, and it's when Dendy's hologram spits out the 5th equation that KO shakes his head and whines that school just ended yesterday.

 

"Well, it doesn't change the fact that this system of management is completely ineffectual."

 

By the end of the day Dendy and KO are in the back room playing their 12th match of *Cops vs Pops* while can army of mops, bots, and automated countertops take very good care of an aforementioned shop.

 

                    --------------------------

 

When summer closes Dendy packs her bots out of the Bodega, telling KO it's for the best that they remain outside the range of KO's button-happy fingers. They both think back to the afternoon apocalypse and shiver. It really is for the best.

 

The bell rings, Rad comes in with sickly orange skin, Enid flattens her white palms against the air, and KO's heart sinks. They brush it off as transforming into "the hero they were meant to be all along", and KO can't help but think that TKO was too.

 

                    --------------------------

Dendy spends the entire evening in her room. Her legs shake up and down, as she pretends she doesn't hear mom call for dinner.

 

"Incommensurable," she whispers, "I-N-C-O-"

 

A knock this time. "Dendy, it's time for supper.”

 

Her breath hitches.

 

“Come on your dad’s making soba noodles with cucumbers.”

 

“I will be… right with you mother,” replies Dendy, shoving her latest spelling test in the vault.

 

“Incommensurable,” she babbles as she hops down the stairs, “I-n-c-o-m-m-e-n-s-u-r-a-b-l-e.”               

                  --------------------------

It was frosty on New Years Eve. Carol and Gar were socializing with the Pavels by the fireplace, but Dendy has no need for such archaic devices when her room possessed a geothermal pump sucking heat from the ground.

 

"Yeah but fireplaces are cool too. At least that’s what TKO says."

 

"Fireplaces also emit carbon dioxide."

 

"Oh no! really?"

 

Dendy nods.

 

"Well can't you just make your parents the geothermal thingy for the living room?"

 

"We normally don't use the fireplace to heat our house but a special occasion deserves something a little flashy. Besides, I think our parents want some time to themselves as do I," she says, peering at the giant snow fortress towering over the back yard.

 

KO frowns. "Uh Dendy? Mr.Gar isn't my dad."

 

Dendy blinks and takes a moment to pause. "Oh. Right."

 

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?"

 

Twisting her face, Dendy replies, "It means... Mr. Gar loves your mom romantically- and he treats _you_ like his son."

 

"Oh." KO looks away and rubs his arm.

 

Silence fills the room. Dendy's eyes wander over to the whiteboard. A pencil that moved via thought command would require EEG sensors, eye trackers, 2B lead a-

 

"So Dendy what's _your_ New Year's resolution?"

 

“ _Mine?_ Well, aside from the fact that New Year’s resolutions suffer a high failure rate, if I had one I suppose it would involve being a nicer kappa.”

 

“But Dendy you’re already nice! You build stuff to help me, you saved the our class from being brainwashed by Esterno’s textbooks, and look-” KO pulls out a pow card with a certain kappa wearing a yellow jumpsuit, “you even made Kappa’s recognized as heroes everywhere.”

 

“Indeed those are heroic but they aren’t the same as making people feel- _better_.” She stares at KO, eyes reflective.

 

“Well I bet a ton of kappas felt better when they finally got the recognition they deserve,” KO says. A small smile spread across his face. “And -uh- if it means anything, _I_ feel a lot better knowing I have a friend as great as you.”

 

“I feel the same way, although I sometimes worry I have not _always_ been an adequate friend to you.”

 

“You aren't still sad about that one time, are you? Look- _Everybody_ doinked up that time. TKO destroyed your whole lab, I kept TKO in that cage, and-you? You were just curious.”

 

“It wasn't just that!” she snaps, palms striking the floor, “and besides, curiosity is not an excuse.”

 

Scooting over, KO reaches out and puts a tentative a hand on Dendy’s shoulder. “It’s the start of the new year,” he says, pointing at the clock. “We can both do better. Next time.”

 

It’s when Dendy lets out an unbidden sniffle that KO wraps his warm arms around her. "It's alright Dendy. You are loved and appreciated!"

 

**Author's Note:**

> I love the friendship between ko and dendy. It's so refreshing to see such a blunt companionship on tv these days.
> 
> Feel free to comment and share criticism


End file.
